Scarlett Johannsson - Anywhere I Lay My Head

One thing is abundantly clear when it comes to Scarlett Johannsson: she does whatever she wants. And when you look like Scarlett Johannsson, everyone will be more than happy to oblige. With her debut album Anywhere I Lay my Head, there is a sense that a lot of people signed on to assist in its production just so they could see her in person and that the album would not have happened if Scarlett Johannsson was not Scarlett Johannsson. This isn't a bad thing, but the problem is that the concept behind it is beyond strange: an album of Tom Waits covers sung by a baritone bombshell, with avant-garde production.

Needless to say, Anywhere I Lay my Head does not fall neatly into the long line of movie star vanity projects that have been historically horrid. The one exception, of course, is Zooey Deschanel's remarkably solid recent album Volume One of classic pop as one-half of the duo She & Him (and possibly Eddie Murphy's "Party All the Time"). Like Zooey, Scarlett is in a league of her own, made apparent by her choice of film roles and general off-camera persona.